Bringing it on back home

Murder, teddy bears and lost love inspire blues

Murder, teddy bears and lost love inspire blues

June 02, 2006|JACK WALTON Tribune Correspondent

Not many blues musicians sing about stuffed animals, but Louisiana Red isn't afraid to show his softer side. In "Teddy Bear/Cootie in the Gump Stump," he complements his lovely slide guitar with a lyric about teddy bears. "I collect teddy bears," he says by telephone from his home in Hanover, Germany. "I have Winnie the Pooh. I have one with red overalls and a cap on his head. I have one called Albert that a lady gave me in Sweden. I like bears. I have them all in the basement." Red didn't have any stuffed toys as a child. Born Iverson Minter in 1932 and orphaned at the age of 5, his early years were full of poverty and physical abuse. His songs often recount these experiences in a stark, autobiographical way. His repertoire also includes harrowing tales of murder ("Sweet Blood Call"), lost love ("Stella Blues") and jail ("Prison Blues"). What Minter didn't get from his parents, older, legendary blues musician often provided when he was starting out. "Lightnin', I knew him just like a daddy," he says. "In New York, I met Eddie Son House. He used to be on the railroad, a Pullman porter. I was playing one night, and I asked where he lived, and I went up there." Minter has emulated the disparate styles of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and B.B. King, but Louisiana Red has always been his own man. Over the decades, his voice and guitar have become just as distinctive as those of his idols. Minter cut his first record for the Checker label in 1952, and remains committed to composing new songs. His recent "Red's Vision" recounts a dream he had that people suffering from Kosovo to Ethiopia could find solace. "I look at the TV, and I say, 'If I could only help those children,' " he says. "I'm not a Bob Geldof, but when I get a little, I send some to UNICEF." Minter's albums usually include blues, boogie and gospel songs, and he's also gifted at spontaneous composition, writing a song as he plays it. "It just hits me," he says of the finely crafted "Let Me Be Your Electrician," from 1999's "Millennium Blues." "(It) came to me automatically in the studio. I sing what comes to me and just put it into music." In 1982, Minter moved to Germany. In Europe, he found less racism, more gigs and better pay. Although he still tours internationally, he has lived there ever since. "I am well pleased with the way I am being treated over here," he says. "But I'm very happy to hear that they're playing my records on the radio (in America.) I'm overjoyed that somebody's listening to the music that's from way back yonder from the old days and the cotton fields." Louisiana Red performs today at the Midway Tavern in Mishawaka. "Don't expect nothing but a boy that was raised (in the United States) who used to walk the streets at night playing his guitar," he says. "And I'm going to bring the blues back to where I got it from."